Justin Moore photo by Kristin Barlowe, courtesy of The Valory Music Co.

"‘Grandpa’ is my favorite song that I’ve ever written. Jeremy, Jamie Paulin and I got together and Jamie grew up in Washington and Jeremy in Georgia. We all grew up on a farm and grew up in places where obviously our dads were our heroes. Both of my grandpas were Superman. I couldn’t imagine them ever not being around. I’m very proud of that song.
"I sent a CD to both of them because they have no idea how to download a MP3. It was really the only time I’ve ever heard or seen my grandpas cry besides my grandma’s funeral.

"I could have a 30-year career or be gone tomorrow, but nobody will ever be able to take that away from me, to be able to do that. I lost my grandma and an uncle a couple of years ago and I was at home playing this song acoustic after I’d written it. My wife walked in and I was bawling and I said, ‘I think I wrote this about my grandpas, but I think I also wrote it about my grandma and uncle.’

"The first line is, ‘You stood on that bank where I got baptized/Gave me a 30-30 when I turned nine.’ Actually it was eight, but nine rhymed. I’ve sat up in a deer stand with my grandpa since I was three years old."

"Hank It"
(Brian Dean Maher, Justin Moore, Jeremy Stover)

"We got off the road with Hank and Lynyrd Skynyrd and my producer, Jeremy, had just bought a house. I went over to see his house and Brian, our other co-writer, just happened to be there. I said, ‘We’ve got to write a song at some point about me going out with Hank Jr. It probably won’t ever make a record because it would be so personal and nobody really probably cares, but we have to write a song about that.’ It was such a cool experience.

"Our first show that we played on that tour was in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and that is in the song. ‘A lot of things a country boy learns in life/how to shoot a gun and how to use a knife/But when I pulled into Hershey P-A, and I took my guitar up on the big stage/That night I did the best I could/ Me and my band played pretty dern good/ And I took myself out and sat in the crowd and learned how Bocephus shakes ‘em down/You’ve got to Hank it.’"